


Hearts Broken

by Terion



Series: The Vampires of Bigby Fork [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Fictional Town, Original Vampires, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 12:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15751983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terion/pseuds/Terion
Summary: Penny Goodwyn loves Darien O'Connell more than she can say. He's a good man (even if he is a vampire) and he deserves better than this. But she wants alifeand afamilyand that is the one thing she can never have with Darien.





	Hearts Broken

_She's going to break his heart._

Penny Goodwyn sighed heavily as she twisted the kitchen hand towel nervously in her lap as she sat at the kitchen table, wishing this could turn out differently. She loves him, God, does she _love him_ ...but she wants more in life. It's taken her most of the last two years to come to this realization and it makes her _sick_.

She wants a family. And that is the one thing that she _can't_ have with Darien.

There's a feeling like this is a failure even though she knows that it's not. Even though they have talked about this before, years ago in the earliest days of their relationship. She feels _in the wrong_ to be doing this. Feels like she’s taking away the happiness that they’ve built together, taking away one of the few bright moments he’s had in his too long life.

She feels... _selfish_.

“Penn!” came his exuberant voice suddenly, as the door of the house he’d bought for himself in ‘55 banged open. “I’m home!”

They were somewhat of the scandal of the town, her and her lover that she had moved in with in ‘56. Spoken about in hushed whispers behind closed doors and carefully placed hands. There was still enough respect left for Darien’s help in catching the Gum Pond Killer that the townsfolk didn’t do any more than that.

“Penn?” she heard him call then, from the front hall. She flinched, bowing her head, as she held back a sudden sob. There was the sound of leather and muffled objects being sat down on the wooden floor and then she could hear his footsteps hurrying through the house. “Penn?!”

His voice was more concerned now but nowhere near full panic.

Coughing, Penny lifted her head and managed a soft, “I’m in the kitchen.” She barely understood what she was saying through her own tear-choked voice but Darien...well, Darien had better ears than she did.

He barged into the room then, moving at a clip that was just at the edge of verging into a speed beyond mortal means. She caught sight of his face, which was awash with worry and concern, and everything just...well apart.

A sob heaved its way out of her lungs and she pitched herself forward, bending over her own knees as the stress became all too much. Almost beyond herself, she could feel Darien’s arms close around her, feel his breath against her neck and her cheek, hear his frantically hissed questions as he tried to look her over for injuries as he knelt in front of her.

“Penn, Penn, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Penn, love, _talk to me._ ”

“ _Penny, please._ ”

It was his voice finally breaking there at the last, making him sound as small and alone as he had those years ago when he’d poured out his past to her in that dingy apartment, that finally broke her. She moved then, lifting herself up and clutching at his button-up shirt with one hand. The other still held tightly to the twisted hand towel, her fingers clutching to it as if it were a lifeline.

“I can’t,” she managed to breathe out. “I can’t do this anymore, Dari.”

His hands - God, his _hands_ that she adored, that were strong enough _break_ a mortal man but so gentle with her - cupped her face, thumbs brushing over the tears that tracked down her cheeks. “Talk to me, love,” he whispered, “tell me how to make it right.”

_God._

He was such a good man.

Shaking her head, Penny leaned forward to rest her forehead against his chest. He let her, releasing her face and coiling his arms tightly around her instead. Darien would protect her against anything, against any threats.

Except...this one.

“There’s no making this right,” she breathed. She tightened her grip on his shirt and gasped, “I can’t do _this_ anymore, Darien. _Us_.”

There was a stunned silence for a moment and then he gasped, “Penn, what...are you…” His voice trailed off and then he asked brokenly, “I...are we... _over?_ ”

Shaking in his arms, what she wanted spilled out of her, her lips trembling over the words.

“I want a _family_.”

Darien stiffened and then he was hugging her tightly, rocking her back and forth as he buried his nose into her hair. “Oh, Penn,” he breathed. “ _Penn_ , my Penn.”

“I'm _sorry_ ,” she started and he interrupted her with a quick, sharp, “ _No_.”

“Don't be sorry for this, love,” he went on, his voice a low whisper carrying echoes of a long lifetime of heartache and pain. “You’ve always made it clear that you didn't want my life. I always figured this would come one day.”

Shaking her head, Penny shoved herself away from him and upright, staring incredulously at him through a sheen of tears. “How can you be so nonchalant about this?” she exploded. “How can you just... _accept this?_ ”

Darien sighed and lifted a hand to gently touch her cheek as he breathed, “Because I've learned in my life that sometimes we must let what we love go. Either in order for it to grow beyond us or for it to become something new. To take a journey that we can't take with them.”

He drew in a shaky breath then and she saw tears well in his eyes.

“And what sort of monster would I be if I refused to let you go?” he asked. “I can't grow old with you or give you children. There is only one way I can keep my line going and only one way for us to be together for any length beyond your natural lifetime. Neither of us want that future.”

Sighing, Penny turned her face into his hand, gently nuzzling his fingers and palm. “I thought I might once,” she breathed. “That one day it might change.”

His breathing hitched and she slowly breathed out into his palm as she whispered, “But I don't. I don't want to live forever.”

Darien let out a shaking breath and then he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I would have,” he breathed, “if you had asked.”

She sobbed at that and pulled herself into him, wrapping her arms tight around his neck and drawing herself close to him. He gripped her just as tightly, pushing forward so his body was between her knees, his face buried against her throat.

Someone else might have feared such a position with something like him. If they knew his past. Knew what he had done.

But she knew _him_. Darien would never hurt her.

“I'm so sorry, Dari,” Penny breathed. “This...it's been eating at me for so long. I still... _I still_ _love you_.”

“And I you,” he replied, his voice slightly muffled by his position. “Always, Penn. _Always_.”

And though she knew that his memory faded as much as anyone else's did (even if it sometimes took a little longer), she knew that was a promise.

They lapsed into silence after that, just holding onto each other tightly. Just...being together. Being close, as they never would be again.

She was glad he didn't ask when she was leaving. Thinking about actually packing up her things and walking out the door would just have her sobbing again. Instead he just...held her.

After a while of sitting like that, however, Penny sniffled then asked softly, “Will you stay?”

Years ago when he had spilled out his past to her, when he had taken all his years of blood and pain and loneliness and put them to words, he had said that if she told him to leave he would go. But despite what she wanted in her life, she didn't want to lose him. He was still the first man she had fallen in love with. The first man than she had given her heart to.

And even if they weren't together anymore, she wanted him in her life.

“Do you want me to?” he asked in return.

“Always.”

Darien drew in a shaky breath in return before saying, “Then I'll be here. As long as you want me to be.”

That, Penny knew, was also a promise he would keep.


End file.
